This year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 features a special tribute to nine-time race winner Peter Brock, including a range of cars from his incredible career set to be on-hand at the track in ‘Peter’s Pitlane’ for fans to enjoy.
Set to be part of the display is the #10 Mobil HDT Racing VL Group A Commodore that Brock, Peter McLeod and David ‘Skippy’ Parsons drove to victory in the 1987 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst.
The trio crossed the line third on the day but were famously elevated to victory after the two Texaco-backed, Eggenberger-run Sierras were excluded from their 1-2 finish post-race.
Now owned by American-based Aussie Kenny Habul, the restored car gave Brock his ninth and final Bathurst ‘Great Race’ win in a year that began with a very public and bitter break up with GM-Holden.
A Queensland debut
Despite all of the early-year drama, Brock’s backers Mobil and Bridgestone stayed with him and, after selling off his team’s unraced brand-new VL Commodore to raise funds (via a middleman to former HDT co-driver Allan Moffat!), another two cars were produced during that season by the team based in Port Melbourne.
It was these two cars that formed the basis of his team’s Bathurst assault later in October.
The VL model Commodores were the second evolution of an eventual four Group A Commodore homologation specials. They were powered by a carburettor-fed 4.9 litre, V8 engine with five-speed Getrag gearbox.
The car that eventually won at Bathurst later that year was debuted by Brock as car #05 at the Surfers Paradise round of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It debuted a largely white livery as distinct from the blue-dominated HDT liveries of 1985 and 1986.
Brock piloted it for the remainder of the ATCC at Sandown, Amaroo Park and Oran Park before it was sent across to Belgium, where Parsons and Kiwi Neville Crichton joined him in the renumbered #3 Commodore for the Spa 24 Hour endurance race.
The car returned in time to Australia to become the team’s #10 entry at Bathurst, due to be driven by long-time privateer Peter McLeod and open wheeler star Jon Crooke.
Alongside it was a virtually new #05 car for Brock and Parsons, which had been debuted at the Pepsi 250 endurance race at Oran Park and then also run in the Castrol 500 at Sandown.
Third past the post
McLeod started the race in the #10 car at Bathurst and had worked his way up the order nicely when the lead #05 car encountered terminal engine problems.
In those days the rules permitted teams to ‘cross enter’ its drivers across the different cars under its own banner, meaning Brock and Parsons were able to take over the team’s #10 entry for the remainder of the day.
Through the miserable wet conditions, off-track brawling over car eligibility and a general distaste from the locals for the Australian classic having become a round of the World Touring Car Championship, the 1987 Bathurst race is down in the history books as a classic.
There was an added twist in the tale too when the top two-finishing Texaco Ford Sierras were eventually rubbed out of the results post-race, elevating third-placed Brock and his Mobil team to victory and the all-important prizemoney that went along with it!
This was Brock’s record ninth and final victory in the October Bathurst classic – a mark that still stands to this day.
An extraordinary weekend
“That would have to go down as one of the most extraordinary weekends that you could ever imagine,” Brock recalled to Motorsport News’ David Hassall 10 years later in 1997, the year he retired from full-time motorsport.
“I was served some legal papers in the pits by some sheriff, Bill Tuckey released his story of ‘The Rise and Fall of Peter Brock’ and I had great difficulty buying any parts for my Commodore to even get onto the grid.
“Consequently, I had one car for which I’d saved up bits and pieces and was basically as good as I could make it. The other car was what was left over. The good car snapped a conrod in half early in the race … so I hopped into car 10 and thought ‘I’ll just get out there and have some fun, just roar around and see what happens.
“Then, of course, with the way things worked out, to be awarded the win at that event, despite all the obstacles and adversity, made me just sit back and think there is some justice in the world."
The Repco Bathurst 1000 will be held at Mount Panorama on October 8-11. Tickets are on sale now.
In collaboration with V8 Sleuth, Supercars.com is highlighting Peter Brock, who will be honoured at the 2026 Repco Bathurst 1000. The nine-time Bathurst winner will be celebrated via a series of tributes, with several of his famous cars on display at the Mountain. The Peter's Pitlane exhibition is outside the National Motor Racing Museum between Thursday October 8 and Sunday October 11.
